Observations

The more we know about students, the more we can help them. Observations, sometimes called kid watching, can help teachers determine what students do and do not know. There are several instruments and techniques that teachers can use to record useful data about student learning. Here are a few: Anecdotal Notes: These are short notes written during a lesson as students work in groups or individually, or after the lesson is complete. The teacher should reflect on a specific aspect of the learning (sorts geometric shapes correctly) and make notes on the student's progress toward mastery of that learning target. The teacher can create a form to organize these notes so that they can easily be used for adjusting instruction based on student needs. Anecdotal Notebook: The teacher may wish to keep a notebook of the individual observation forms or a notebook divided into sections for the individual students. With this method, all of the observations on an individual student are together and can furnish a picture of student learning over time. Anecdotal Note Cards: The teacher can create a file folder with 5" x 7" note cards for each student. See Observation Folder. This folder is handy for middle and high school teachers because it provides a convenient way to record observations on students in a variety of classes. Labels or Sticky Notes: Teachers can carry a clipboard with a sheet of labels or a pad of sticky notes and make observations as they circulate throughout the classroom. After the class, the labels or sticky notes can be placed in the observation notebook in the appropriate student's section. Whatever the method used to record observations on students' learning, the import thing is to use the data collected to adjust instruction to meet student needs.

Questioning
Asking better questions affords students an opportunity for deeper thinking and provides teachers with significant insight into the degree and depth of student understanding. Questions of this nature engage students in classroom dialogue that expands student learning. Questions should go beyond the typical factual questions requiring recall of facts or numbers. Paul Black, a noted authority on formative assessment, suggests that "more effort has to be spent in framing questions that are worth asking: that is, questions which explore issues that are critical to the development of students' understanding." (Black et al., 2003)

Discussion

Classroom discussions can tell the teacher much about student learning and understanding of basic concepts. The teacher can initiate the discussion by presenting students with an open-ended question. The goal is to build knowledge and develop critical and creative thinking skills. Discussions allow students to increase the breadth and depth of their understanding while discarding erroneous information and expanding and explicating background knowledge (Black and Wiliam 1998; Doherty 2003). By activating students as learning resources for one another there is the possibility of some of the largest gains seen in any educational intervention (Slavin, Hurley and Chamberlain 2003). The teacher can assess student understanding by listening to the student responses and by taking anecdotal notes. To prepare students for the discussion, the teacher could have students complete the Decision Making Chart.

Decision Making Chart

Reasons For:

Reasons Against:

Question:

My Decision:

Exit/Admit Slips

Exit Slips are written responses to questions the teacher poses at the end of a lesson or a class to assess student understanding of key concepts. They should take no more than 5 minutes to complete and are taken up as students leave the classroom. The teacher can quickly determine which students have it, which ones need a little help, and which ones are going to require much more instruction on the concept. By assessing the responses on the Exit Slips the teacher can better adjust the instruction in order to accomodate students' needs for the next class. Admit slips are exactly like Exit Slips, but they are done prior to or at the beginning of the class. Students may be asked to reflect on their understanding of their previous night's homework, or they may reflect on the previous day's lesson if the question required a longer response time. Exit and Admit Slips can be used in all classes to integrate written communication into the content area.

3 2 1

Things I Learned Today

Things I Found Interesting

Question I Still Have

Learning/Response Logs
Learning Logs are used for students' reflections on the material they are learning. This type of journal is in common use among scientists and engineers. In the log, students record the process they go through in learning something new, and any questions they may need to have clarified. This allows students to make connections to what they have learned, set goals, and reflect upon their learning process. The act of writing about thinking helps students become deeper thinkers and better writers. Teachers and students can use Learning Logs during the formative assessment process, as students record what they are learning and the questions they still have, and teachers monitor student progress toward mastery of the learning targets in their log entries and adjust instruction to meet student needs. By reading student logs and delivering descriptive feedback on what the student is doing well and suggestions for improvement, the teacher can make the Learning Log a powerful tool for learning.

Response Logs are a good way to examine student thinking. They are most often connected with response to literature, but they may be used in any content area. They offer students a place to respond personally, to ask questions, to predict, to reflect, to collect vocabulary and to compose their thoughts about text. Teachers may use Response Logs as formative assessment during the learning process.

Learning Logs
Learning Logs are used for students' reflections on the material they are learning. This type of journal is in common use among scientists and engineers. In the log, students record the process they go through in learning something new, and any questions they may need to have clarified. This allows students to make connections to what they have learned, set goals, and reflect upon their learning process. The act of writing about thinking helps students become deeper thinkers and better writers. Teachers and students can use Learning Logs as classroom assessment for learning, as students record what they are learning and the questions they still have, and teachers monitor student progress toward mastery of the learning targets in their log entries. By reading student logs and delivering descriptive feedback on what the student is doing well and suggestions for improvement. the teacher can make the Learning Log a powerful tool for learning.

Response Logs
Response Logs are a good way to examine student thinking. They are most often connected with response to literature, but they may be used in any content area. They offer students a place to respond personally, to ask questions, to predict, to reflect, to collect vocabulary and to compose their thoughts about text. Teachers may use Response Logs as formative assessment during the learning process.

Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers are visual models that can assist students in organizing information and communicating clearly and effectively. Students can use graphic organizers to structure their writing, brainstorm ideas, assist in decision making, clarify story structure, help with problem solving, and plan research. These are a few of the more common graphic organizers and there are links to sites for more at the bottom of the page. Venn Diagram KWL Chart KWLS Chart KWHL Chart

KNWS Chart Brainstorming Web AlphaBoxes Mind Map T Chart Double Entry Journal Sense-O-Gram Chain of Events Problem - Solution Chart Somebody-Wanted-But-So Summary Star Frayer Model Knowledge Rating Scale Concept Map Word Detective Decision Making Chart Show My Thinking Chart Event Analysis Chart for Social Studies Map the Character Make a Math Connection

Peer/Self Assessments
Peer and self assessment help to create a learning community within the classroom. When students are involved in criteria and goal setting, self evaluation becomes a logical step in the learning process. Students become metacognitive and are more aware of their personal strengths and weaknesses. With peer assessment students begin to see each other as resources for understanding and checking for quality work against previously determined criteria. The teacher can examine the self assessments and

the peer assessments and identify students' strengths and weaknesses. "When students are required to think about their own learning, articulate what they understand, and what they still need to learn, achievement improves." (Black and Wiliam 1998) Two Stars and a Wish (A Strategy for Peer Assessment) This peer assessment is particularly useful for the writing process. Students are paired and asked to read each others written work. The reader must identify two things the author did well (stars) and one specific suggestion for improvement (the wish). Before implementing this strategy, students must be trained on the process of providing appropriate feedback to their peers. The teacher can use this strategy as a formative assessment by circulating around the classroom and listening to the conversations between partners. The Mirror a formative assessment technique that allows students to reflect upon themselves, their experiences, their knowledge, etc. IMPLEMENTING THIS ACTIVITY Tailor the Mirror template to fit your classroom needs. Distribute copies to your students. After completing a specific activity, lesson, field trip, task, article, etc.; ask students to write a reflection based on the prompt in the Binoculars template. Collect and/or discuss responses. Use information found in student work to inform future instruction. As I See It is a formative assessment technique that focuses students thinking on their own knowledge or opinions. IMPLEMENTING THIS ACTIVITY Determine the number of rows you would like on the template. Create and enter in the sentence stems on the template. Examples of types of sentence stems Personal Statements When I read this, I imagine that I was most impacted by

Explanatory Statements The angle changes because Prediction Statements Based on the data, I predict Confusion Declarations After today, I am still confused about Make and distribute enough copies for each student. Ask students to express their knowledge or opinions using the stems. Discuss what students have discovered about their own opinions or levels of knowledge.

Windshield Check This formative assessment can be used to have students check their own understanding of a concept just taught in a lesson. Using the analogy of a windshield, students will decide which of the following best describes what they know about the concept: CLEAR = I get it! I thoroughly understand the concept. BUGGY = I understand it for the most part, but a few things are still unclear. MUDDY = I dont get it at all. This assessment can quickly let the teacher know if there are major or minor misunderstandings, and help him/her design instruction to clarify any misconceptions before moving on Signals Signals can be used by students to indicate their understanding of the concept presented in a lesson. The teacher can quickly scan the classroom and assess who understands the concept, who may need more help, and who does not have the idea at all. The use of signals relies on two things: the ability of students to assess their own understanding of the concept, and their willingness to be honest about where they are on the learning continuum. The latter is fostered by a classroom climate where it is safe to say, "I don't understand."

Fist to Five

This formative assessment technique quickly allows the teacher to gauge the understanding of the learners in his/her classroom. After presenting a lesson, or part of a lesson, the teacher asks students to use their hand to signal their depth of understanding. A fist means, I dont understand any of it, while all five fingers out means, I understand it completely. Students can signal by raising 1, 2, 3, or 4 fingers also. The teacher can readjust the next lesson or section of the lesson as needed based on student response. To hold students more accountable for their truthfulness the teacher can call on someone who signaled a 5 to explain the concept to the class, or partner students who understand (5) with those who dont (0) and let them teach each other for a few minutes.

Thumbs Up Side Down

This formative assessment technique quickly allows the teacher to gauge the understanding of the learners in his/her classroom. After presenting a lesson, or part of a lesson, the teacher asks students to use their hand to signal their depth of understanding. A thumb up means I have a good understanding. A thumb to the side means I still have some questions. A thumb down means I dont get it. The teacher can readjust the next lesson or section of the lesson as needed based on student response. To hold students more accountable for their truthfulness the teacher can call on someone who signaled a thumb up to explain the concept to the class, or partner students who understand with those who dont and let them teach each other for a few minutes.

Colored Cups

This formative assessment technique quickly allows the teacher to gauge the understanding of the learners in his/her classroom. The teacher gives each student 3 cups; one red, one yellow and one green. As students work independently, they display the appropriate color of cup to indicate their understanding of the concept. A green cup means I am working OK and encountering no problems. A yellow cup means I still have some questions because I cant do some of the work. A red cup means I am lost and I dont know how to proceed. The teacher can work individually with students displaying the red cups, or bring them together for small group instruction. The same process can be used for the yellow cups, or a green cup could be paired with a yellow cup for peer tutoring. This same process can be used with colored cards if cups are not available. Practice Presentations Just as in sports, practice before a classroom presentation is vital. Through practice and peer review, students can improve their presentation skills and the content of the presentation itself. The practice presentation should take place a few days before the final presentation due date. Students run through their presentations with the audience, their peers, evaluating the performance based on the previously established rubric criteria. An easy way for students to furnish feedback is through a T Chart. Students use the left column of the chart to comment on the positive aspects of the presentation, and they use the right columns to suggest changes that the presenter might make to improve the quality of the

presentation. By listening to both the practice and final presentations the teacher can easily gauge the level of student understanding of critical concepts and adjust instruction to address any misconceptions. Visual Representations There are several forms of visual representation, or nonlinguistic representation, but one that offers assessment data for the teacher is the use of drawing. Graphic organizers can be used as visual representations of concepts in the content areas. Many of the graphic organizers contain a section where the student is expected to illustrate his/her idea of the concept. The Mind Map requires that students use drawings, photos or pictures from a magazine to represent a specific concept. The Verbal and Visual Word Association (VVWA) asks students to illustrate a vocabulary term. Both of these offer the teacher a quick way of assessing student depth of understanding regarding a specific concept and the ability to adjust instruction immediately to address student needs.

Kinesthetic Assessments These examples of the formative assessment process require students to incorporate movement to demonstrate their understanding of a topic or concept. Although usually connected with the Arts (dance, playing a musical piece) or physical education (dribbling a basketball, serving a volleyball), kinesthetic assessments can be used in the core content classrooms to furnish teachers with insight into their students' understandings and misconceptions concerning a concept. Kinesthetic assessments are a good way to add movement in the classroom and allow teachers to determine the depth of student learning to inform their instructional decisions. ELA Grammar Example

This formative assessment, called Make a Sentence, can be used to determine if students can construct a sentence, identify parts of speech and add correct punctuation. The teacher must first construct some sentences and write each separate word and punctuation mark on an index card. The complexity of the sentences will be determined by the age and prior knowledge of the students. The teacher might begin with simple sentences and later move to sentences with more complexity, such as those having multiple phrases or clauses. A group of students is given a stack of index cards containing the words and punctuation needed to complete a sentence or question. They must work collaboratively to form the sentence and organize themselves in a line so that the sentence can be read from left to right. Each student will read the word on the card or make sound effects for the punctuation (a pop for a period, a swish pop for a question mark, etc.). The teacher may extend the activity by having the subject of the sentence stand on tiptoe and the verb can jump up and down (action verb) or sit on the floor (being verb). Prepositional phrases can link their arms; adjectives and adverbs can put their hands on the shoulders of the person holding the word they modify. The teacher can adjust the movements or length and complexity of the sentences.

To use this activity as a formative assessment the teacher can listen to student conversations as they collaborate to form their sentence. He/she can ask students to explain why they lined up in a certain manner or why they exhibited a certain movement, right or wrong. Instrumental Music Example

In the process of teaching a piece of music, the instructor can assess student understanding and performance using the break-down technique. For example, in listening to the entire band or orchestra play a selection, the instructor hears some incorrect notes being played. He/she may ask one instrument section at a time to play the piece note-by-note to determine if each note is being played correctly. This type of formative assessment will allow the director to quickly spot where the mistake is originating and to target a specific instrumental group for instruction. For example, if the mistake is only occurring in the flute section, the director might check the fingering of each student in that section and make corrections as needed. This targeted formative assessment is more productive than making the entire ensemble play the piece over and over. Debate Circles

This formative assessment can be used to activate student thinking and uncover their understandings and misconceptions. Students form a circle in the classroom or another large area. The teacher makes a statement, like, Which is more important: Individual Rights or the Common Good? Students who think Individual Rights are more important move to the center of the circle. Students left on the outside, those who think the Common Good is more important, form another circle and both groups formulate their position on the topic. The teacher listens to the discussion and assesses student understanding. After the students have had time to formulate their arguments, they form two lines facing one another and students take turns expressing their ideas on the statement. Inside-Outside Circle

Inside-Outside Circle (Kagan, 1994) is a summarization technique that gets students up and moving. It provides a way to get students who normally would not talk to interact with others. After students read a section of text, the teacher divides the group. Half of the students stand up and form a circle with their backs to the inside of the circle. They are partner A. The other half of the students form a circle facing a partner from the first circle. These students are partner B. Partner A will speak first, quickly summarizing what they read. This takes about a minute. Then partner B speaks for the same length of time, adding to the summary. If the teacher stands in the center of the circle, he/she can easily monitor student responses. Now it is time to move. Have the students who are partner A raise their right hands and then move two people to the right to meet with a new partner. Repeat the summary with partner B speaking first. For the third move, have all students who are partner B raise their right hand and move two people to the right. After they are with a new partner, they continue with the summary with partner A speaking first. Depending on the size of the class, teachers may have students move more or fewer times to complete the activity. Inside-Outside Circle holds all students

accountable for having something to say. The teacher can use this activity as a formative assessment by standing in the center of the circle and listening to the conversations that take place. Individual Whiteboards Individual slates or whiteboards are a great way to hold all students in the class accountable for the work. They actively involve students in the learning and are a terrific tool in the formative assessment process because they give the teacher immediate information about student learning. When students complete their work and hold their whiteboard up, the teacher can quickly determine who is understanding and who needs help and adjust his/her instruction accordingly. Individual whiteboards are easy to make from melamine or tile board which are usually carried at a local home supply store. Laundry Day Laundry Day is a strategy in the formative assessment process mentioned by Cassandra Erkens in her article entitled "Scenarios on the Use of Formative Classroom Assessment" (2007). This is a strategy where students evaluate their own learning in preparation for a chapter or unit test. They group themselves in the classroom around four different kinds of laundry detergent: Tide, Gain, Bold and Cheer. In their chosen corner they will work on activities to enrich or improve their understanding of the required content. The teacher can readily assess the students' level of understanding of the basic concepts covered in the unit or chapter. The teacher provides support as needed, as well as help being provided by students who are sure they have mastered the content. None of the work generated during this time counts as a grade, but students are scaffolded to increase their chances of success on the upcoming test. Four Corners Four Corners is a quick strategy that can be used effectively in the formative assessment process for gauging student understanding. It can engage students in conversations about controversial topics. The four corners of the classroom can be labeled as Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree. Present students with a statement, like "All students should wear uniforms to school," and have them move to the corner that expresses their opinion. Students could then discuss why they feel the way they do. The teacher can listen to student discussions and determine who has information to support their opinion and who does not. Another way to use Four Corners is associated with multiple choice quizzes. Label the corners of the classroom as A, B, C and D. Students respond to a teacher-created question by choosing the answer they feel is correct. They must be able to give a reason for their answer. Constructive Quizzes Periodic quizzes can be used during the formative assessment process to monitor student learning and adjust instruction during a lesson or unit. Constructive quizzes will not only furnish teachers with feedback on their students, but they serve to help students evaluate their own learning. The process is outlined in the document below. By using quizzes to furnish students with immediate feedback, the

teacher can quickly determine the status of each student in relation to the learning targets, and students can learn more during the discussions that immediately follow the quizzes, instead of having to wait until the next day to see the results of the assessment in the form of a meaningless grade on the top of a paper. The teacher should use the results of these quizzes to adjust instruction immediately based on student outcomes. Think-Pair-Share Think-Pair-Share (Lyman, 1981) is a summarization strategy that can be used in any content area before, during, and after a lesson. The activity involves three basic steps. During the "think" stage, the teacher tells students to ponder a question or problem. This allows for wait time and helps students control the urge to impulsively shout out the first answer that comes to mind. Next, individuals are paired up and discuss their answer or solution to the problem. During this steps students may wish to revise or alter their original ideas. Finally, students are called upon to share with the rest of the class. There is also a Think-Pair-Square-Share. In this strategy, partners discuss answers with another pair before sharing with the class. This activity ensures that all students are interacting with the information. Teachers can use this activity in the formative assessment process as they walk about the room listening to student conversations. Appointment Clock The Appointment Clock is a simple strategy in the formative assessment process that can be embedded within a lesson. The teacher directs students to find thee people with whom to schedule appointments at the quarter hour, the half hour, and the 45-minute mark. The teacher begins the lesson and provides information to move students to higher-order thinking. The teacher determines the stopping point and asks students to meet with their quarter hour appointment to discuss their thinking about a couple of questions the teacher has posed. The teacher walks around and listens to the conversations taking place between partners, noting any misconceptions or misunderstandings. The teacher uses this information to adjust instruction by redirecting the next segment of the lesson. Students meet with their half hour appointment and the teacher conducts the same informal observation and adjusts the third section of the lesson. Students continue this process until the lesson is complete. By structuring a lesson in the manner, the teacher is able to determine the current level of understanding for the class and for individual students, and make immediate adjustments to instruction to assist students in their learning.